How to measure standing rigging on your sailboat.

There are five critical dimensions that are needed to spec out and build a shroud or stay on any sailboat:

- Pin to pin or bearing point to pin length.

- Diameter of the cable.

- Diameter of upper and lower pins.

- Type of upper and lower terminals.

- Type of cable (1x19, Compact strand, Dyform, or 7 strand).

When measuring each shroud, it is important to have the corresponding turnbuckle either 1/2 or 3/4 of the way open in order to allow for adjustment and small margin of error which can compensate for rror when measuring due to windage of the measure tape or visual miscalculation.

Here we show how best to measure your stays and shrouds:

On discontinue rigs it is important to properly identify each on of the shrouds using the typical rigger's nomenclature:

V1D1V2D2 .. and so on.

Don't wait until the wire starts to break or rust too much. Be proactive about maintaining your boat and change the rigging every ten years. Keep in mind that crystallization and fatigue are rarely observed on the wire and they may be the hidden enemy leading toward a rig failure.

The crew at Vela Sailing can help you determine the best way to have your rigging finished and installed, using the best materials on both types of terminals: swage and swageless (Sta-Lok, Hi-Mod, etc).